Turkish Scholars: “We are with the Qatari state and scholars like Qaradawi”

On Thursday, prominent Islamic scholars from Turkey published a statement in defence and support of the Egyptian born and Qatar-based Shaikh, Prof Dr Yusuf Al-Qaradawi who is the chairman of the international Union of Muslim Scholars.[1]

Shaikh Qaradawi, who memorised the Qur’an at the age of 10 and graduated from the Faculty of Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence in 1953 at the top of his class, has published over 120 books and has received eight international prizes for his contributions to Islamic scholarship.[2]

The 90-year-old Shaikh who lives in Qatar in exile was recently designated as a “terrorist” by Saudi Arabia and a number of other Gulf countries following their joint boycott and blockade of Qatar.

The Turkish scholars stated in their statement that:

“We declare that we are with the Qatari state and scholars like Qaradawi who are against imperialism. We demand that the irrational action against them ends.”

The statement further moved on to describe the treatment of Qaradawi, Hamas and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood as unfair:

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“Accusing these two distinguished movements [Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas] as terrorists, and counting everyone close to them as enemy, is tantamount to wanting to destroy everyone who thinks of the Ummah and opposes imperialism.”

The statement went on to make further remarks in support of the Shaikh, such as:

“Yousef al-Qaradawi and other scholars like him are the honor and the conscience of this Ummah.”

The scholars also stated that US President Donald Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia was the reason for the current on-going blockade against Qatar.[3]

Some responded to Shaikh Qaradawi’s inclusion on the terror list by publishing a older video of him saying:[4]

“If I wanted to be a hypocrite or under the control of the king, I would have remained in my own country, I would have reached the highest positions with very little effort just as others besides me had done.”

“But I preferred protecting my Dīn, standing firm on my position, so that I may say to the transgressors and oppressors: You may imprison me, burn my back with a whip, place a knife on my neck, but you will never be able to prevent me from articulating my beliefs even for a moment.”

On June 9, Saudi Arabia and its allies in the Gulf accused 12 charity organisations and 59 individuals (including Shaikh Qaradawi) in Qatar of being “linked to terror”, in a joint statement. In a foreign ministry statement on Friday, Qatar responded to the allegations and described them as “baseless and slanderous”.[5]